David J. Bier and Nicholas Anthony
New reporting from the Wall Street Journal has revealed that President Donald Trump may soon deputize banks as immigration agents.
Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned that he was looking into how banks can “double down” on know-your-customer requirements when he testified before Congress earlier this year. Secretary Bessent didn’t go into detail, but it now seems that the plan is to force banks to collect citizenship information from customers, new and old.
In other words, your bank may soon call asking you to show your papers if this executive order goes through.
To be clear, there is nothing illegal about noncitizens or foreigners opening bank accounts in the United States. In fact, it’s a good thing that people around the world view the US banking system as a safe haven. Kicking them out of the system would not only cut off a source of stability for them but also eliminate investment and savings that power the US economy.
The consequences do not end there. Other countries caught up in the anti-foreign bias would suffer from this requirement. It would perversely encourage informal cash economies, discourage foreign investment, undermine tax and wage compliance, and reduce visibility into real, serious criminal activity. It will also result in more robberies of cash-carrying immigrants, including legal immigrants and US citizens who fear the abuses of immigration enforcement, which have so often swept them up.
President Trump made a name for himself fighting for people who had been kicked out of the financial system (commonly referred to as being debanked). He rightly called for an end to the maze of regulatory red tape that leads banks to close accounts. However, he’s quickly becoming the newest cause of debanking. In November 2025, he charged banks with looking for customers who may be affiliated with Antifa and cutting them off from the financial system. Now it seems he may be doing the same for noncitizens.
The history of financial surveillance has been a history of ever-moving goalposts. First, it was tax evasion. Then it was the war on drugs. Then it was the war on terror. More recently, it was the war on fraud. However, it now seems to be a war on immigration. The one thing that has stayed the same is that this regime has increasingly violated people’s financial privacy. In the end, it’s innocent people who suffer the most.
But once policymakers go down the “papers-please” path, there’s no logical off-ramp. Ever since Congress mandated that businesses screen job applicants for status, libertarians have warned about the threat of universal surveillance in the name of immigration enforcement. First, it was jobs. Now, it’s bank accounts. It is only a matter of time before rentals, transportation, business licenses, and gun sales follow.
If the goal is to make living in the United States illegally impossible, there is no end to targets—never mind that it would result in hardship and errors affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans. Driven by an unrelenting disdain for immigrants, some people might like that idea. However, that type of system is the exact opposite of the foundation on which this country was built. As Representative Barry Loudermilk (R‑GA) recently noted, it doesn’t matter that law enforcement agencies (including Immigration and Customs Enforcement) want to target everything. This country was built on a foundation that all people have the right to privacy. If law enforcement wants to pierce that protection, they can get a warrant.
Yet, unfortunately, some surveillance programs still make it through.
Consider the federal government’s E‑Verify program used to confirm people’s legal status, which is mandatory in several states. From 2006 to 2019, despite a low error rate, the program reports indicate that about 760,000 legal workers were obstructed from getting jobs due to system errors. We can expect similar problems if the information that banks collect is used in a similar way.
And E‑Verify has not worked to end illegal employment. Immigrants work off the books. They borrow or steal IDs to get jobs. This banking proposal virtually guarantees more ID theft, not less. Rather than solving a problem, it creates new ones.
Of course, most people want the government to address illegal immigration. But once the government has the on-off switch for all these rights, it is only a matter of time before it uses them against other disfavored groups—protesters, gun owners, and others. In fact, as seen during Operation Choke Point, the government has already abused its powers in precisely this way.
Moreover, the federal government is linking all government records to a centralized system so that it can pull up detailed background on anyone at a moment’s notice. This dystopian Big Brother project is already giving bureaucrats and law enforcement access to extensive personal information without any reason to believe that the person has violated any laws.
The government should focus on protecting the rights of Americans. Those rights include privacy in their personal affairs. Without probable cause of a violation of the law, the government should leave people and businesses alone. This requirement serves the dual purpose of protecting the rights of innocent people and of forcing law enforcement to focus on real investigations into serious offenses, not random fishing expeditions.
Congress should block any attempt to force banks to require proof of citizenship status. It shouldn’t wait until their constituents get caught up in it.
